Game of the Year Awards 2011 - The Nominees

I know it’s something that we’ve been saying for years now, but it’s true for this year, more than ever: this year was the best year for gaming, ever. Not only was 2011 a triumphant year for video games, but it was an incredible time to be a gamer. We’re not just talking from a quality standpoint here either, because there was plenty of innovation, a brief glimpse into what we can expect in the future and tonnes of games that truly captured our imaginations.

Before we sit down and tell you our winners of the year, which we’ll bring your way on New Year’s Eve as we always do, let us first give you a sneak peak at the final nominees for each of the thirteen categories. After taking nominations from the editorial staff, we managed to finally whittle each category down to just five games… five games who all stood a chance of being either on that elusive winner’s spot at the top of the podium, or at least grabbing a runners-up spot.

Premise: Any of the top three I'm fine with. Skyrim is not revolutionary in that regard. Story: Probly Deus Ex, but that's mostly from hearsay (and negating the ones on there I've played). Multiplayer: Gears (I'm partial. I'd probably concede to Battlefield, though, from what I've been told of it). Graphics: Why is this even a contest? Rayman is cool and innovative, but Crysis almost had me in tears over its beauty. I mean, have you SEEN the way they make fire look?! Original Score: AC:R or Deus Ex. Skyrim has a few good tracks, but the rest blend in to boring ambiance. New Franchise: Bulletstorm (again, partial. But if they reign in the seriousness of the story and let the sequel be as balls-to-the-walls ridiculous as the gameplay, they're set). Arcade Game: Haven't played any of them seriously, so... Bastion? It's been the best rated, I know. Otherwise I'd give Double Fine the nod on one of those. Gameplay Feature: Probly Driver. Cuz I don't know what Brink did and the rest are basically alterations on old mechanics (even skillshots have been done before. See WET, etc.). Surprise: Rayman or Driver. Because I've heard nothing on the other two, and, come on, we knew that Twisted Pixel couldn't disappoint. ;) Disappointment: Duke, for all the fools who thought it'd actually be good. Developer: Volition. All the way. Saints Row was WAY WAY WAY too much fun (and a not half-bad story, to boot)! Otherwise Epic, because above and two games out in one year to decent-amazing reviews. Publisher: Not THQ. Bethesda just falls under mark for only releasing one good (though, surprisingly seriously good. Like I'm going to finish this post and run right back to it good) game. Any of the rest, go get em. GotY: Deus Ex is just shy of competing with the big boys. And Portal 2 is trash by compare. Let Batman, Fenix and the Dovakiin duke it out for the title!

Best Premise of the Year - Deus Ex: Human Revolution Best Story of the Year - LA Noire Best Multiplayer of the Year - Gears of War 3 Best Graphics of the Year - Rayman: Origins Best Original Score of the Year - Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim New Franchise of the Year - LA Noire Arcade Game of the Year - Stacking Innovative Gameplay Feature of the Year - LA Noire's facial mocap Surprise of the Year - Rayman: Origins Disappointment of the Year - Call of Juarez: the Cartel Developer of the Year - Valve Publisher of the Year - Bethesda Game of the Year - Portal 2

Best Graphics nominees is messed up. How is Rayman Origins in that? That is not a best graphics type of game, instead thats something that should be in Best Visual Style. Battlefield 3 should be in Best Graphics. You can argue it if you want but no game looks better than Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3 as far as console goes.

@31 while I cannot that website due to not understanding the language, I still find the top 5 on it to be a bad selection of games. Forza 4, really? On top of being a racing game, which is a small market, it is essentially a prettier looking version of Forza 3. Sure it has Kinect features, and I have no doubt the game is the best racing game out there, but that hardly qualifies it as GotY. Red Faction, with all its mediocre reviews, hardly has a place above games like Gears of War 3 or BF3. Portal 2 is an acceptable nominee. Homefront, I'm not very familiar with....which normally says something about a game. But again, don't have any real info on it other than how it was supposed to be "realistic" and yet civilians have rocket launchers >_>. Rayman:Origins deserves a place in Aracde game of the year, but I highly doubt ANY arcade game will have enough substance and playtime to it to be considered a GotY nominee.

Best Premise of the Year - Either Dark Souls or deus ex for me (Skyrim and Arkham city are also very good)

Best Story of the Year - Portal 2/Deus Ex (although stories could of been better)

Best Multiplayer of the Year - Probably MW3 (BF3 to me, failed on alot of promises and felt a little rushed, but still highly enjoyable)

Best Graphics of the Year - Probably RAGE - looks great when installed on console and runs smooth.

Best Original Score of the Year - Halo's score has always been fantastic, but deus ex and skyrim are also right up there

New Franchise of the Year - Possibly dead island (future developments could take this idea a LONG way aswell). Rage was also a descent new franchise. Bulletstorm and LA Noire didn't capture my attention for too long. Brink failed, miserably.

I'm sorry, but I don't see how Activision have been snubbed for 'Publisher of the year' when they remain one of the few publishers who haven't started this online pass bull****. They may run games into the ground, but at least they're not p***ing on the pre-owned market. But anyways: Best Premise: LA Noire Best story: LA Noire (Even though I haven't finished yet :3) Best multiplayer: Battlefield 3 Best graphics: No opinion on this. Best score: Creed Revelations. New franchise: LA Noire (Again...) Innovative gameplay: LA Noires face cap Surprise: Driver San Fran Dissapointment: DNF Developer: Rocksteady Publisher: Bethesda GOTY: Skyrim :3

Deus Ex was really nice at first blush (Yellow Blade Runner, yay!), but it does have issues that'll stop it from taking any top spot. Not enough depth, whether compared to other games in the series or other games in general.

Disappointment, easily Duke Nukem. That's a front runner for Disappointment of the Decade (this one and last one).

@39 If you think Duke Nukem was one of the biggest disappointments of the decade, I seriously question your integrity as a gamer lol.

Anyways, since I don't care about half those categories, I'll just post the ones I do think should win.

Game of the Year: Skyrim or Arkham City, hands down.

Arcade Game of the Year: Trenched (Iron Brigade). I do respect people for saying Bastion and Torchlight but I totally think Bastion is one of the most over-rated games of all-time and Torchlight was mediocre because it lacked multiplayer. Trenched brought a fresh perspective to the tower defense genre and was highly addictive. Just a shame they didn't put any DLC out for it.

Best Multiplayer Game of the Year: MW3. As much as it pains me, there's just nothing that even comes close to it. Gears has outworn its welcome, Battlefield 3 was cool at first, but no one gives a shit about it anymore and there's just nothing else that really stands out. Portal 2 was fun, but let's face it, 2-player co-op games just don't cut it in a world with 18+ player competitive multiplayer games.

Best Premise of the Year: Batman: Arkham City? Best Story of the Year: Portal 2 Best Multiplayer of the Year: Gears of War 3 Best Graphics of the Year: NOT Gears of War 3 Best Original Score of the Year: Assassin’s Creed: Revelations New Franchise of the Year: ... Arcade Game of the Year: Stacking Innovative Gameplay Feature of the Year: ... Surprise of the Year: The Gunstringer Disappointment of the Year: Need For Speed: The Run Developer of the Year: Valve Publisher of the Year: Ubisoft Game of the Year: Portal 2

@20 I think you guys misunderstood me, Gear 3 had good graphics, great graphics, but not amazing graphics like Dead Space 2 or Battlefield 3.

@25 You're stupid. When determining if you like a game, you don't say, "Well their DLC's sucks, so the other one." It's a game, not what the developer chooses to add to it afterwards...

PS: How am I gonna say this? Skyrim WAS NOT the best game of the year. It's like COD, where everyone loves it and overlooks the problems, especially critics. Skyrim suffered from pretty bad problems post-release. It had a lot of wierd glitches that were actually pretty cool, though.

Also, I agree with other people. What the fuck x360a? No Battlefield 3? That has to be one of the best looking games on Xbox. And no offense, but Rayman: Origins may have looked beautiful, but that's an art style. Battlefield 3 and Dead Space 2 should replace Gears of War 3 and Rayman.

Another question: How can Skyrim have a good premise when it been the fifth game in a series in the same place? I haven't played any of the others, so are they really that different?

@46 I'm gonna have to disagree with you for Dead Space 2. While it had above average graphics, they aren't as good as Gears 3. Nevertheless, Battlefield 3 should be in the Best Graphics category (Which it should've won if it was)

And I'm going to say it again, Assassin's Creed and LA Noire over Bastion for Best Original Score? I am disappoint.

Wow am I the only one that thinks Dark Souls deserves to be in the running for GOTY? Portal 2 was good and all but it was hardly GOTY material.

Deus Ex was amazing but Batman and Gears? Good games but a bit been there done that. I know a lot of people love Skyrim but it's a massive step backward from Morrowind and even Oblivion and it makes me sick.

Bastion fits a lot of those other categories better than the full-retail games you included. Best original score, best story, maybe even best premise. Confining it to the arcade category only is demeaning.

Skyrim for best story - really? I know you guys well (at least I think I do) and I am betting that you will give game of the year to Skyrim. Might as well predict next year game of the year being ME3 LOL. It's a good list, but like I said - too predictable.

@53 I'd agree on the story. I didn't feel the main quest was that great, and the final boss fight was far too easy. Although, I'm also probably the only person who kept getting reminded of Transformers during the whole plot. Alduin = The fallen (World eater), Paarthurnax = Optimus Prime? No? Okay, just me then xD

I can't believe EA is on the publisher of the year list. I like to wait a few weeks before buying some new games so i can get the $10 discount on a pre owned game only to find out I have to pay an extra $10 on online passes. :(

@46 Perhaps you should look in the mirror before calling somebody stupid. I never said I didn't like the game. Plus the Robin and Catwoman DLC was sold with preorders, which would make it part of the game. You sir, are the "stupid" one.

Best Premise of the Year - Batman: Arkham City Best Story of the Year - Portal 2 Best Multiplayer of the Year - Modern Warfare 3 Best Graphics of the Year - Forza 4 Best Original Score of the Year - Halo: Anniversary New Franchise of the Year - Dead Island Arcade Game of the Year - Bastion Innovative Gameplay Feature of the Year - Driver: San Francisco's Shift Mechanic Surprise of the Year - The Gunstringer Disappointment of the Year - Duke Nukem Forever Developer of the Year - Rocksteady Publisher of the Year - EA and Bethesda can go suck it, Ubisoft and THQ are OK I guess so Microsoft Game Studios wins! Game of the Year - Batman: Arkham City (Skyrim is so overrated)

Wow, all these haters for the Duke. I personally loved the game but I played it for Duke. Nothing innovative, nothing mind blowing, just pure Duke. I got it and enjoyed every minute of it. It may have felt dated to some but it was because the only thing Gearbox did to it was give it a chance to get out. It was what Duke was supposed to be 15 years ago and that was it. I know it wont get GOTY but it sure as hell doesn't deserve disappointment of the year. Give that to The Run or The Cartel

Best Premise of the Year - Dark Souls Best Story of the Year - Dead Space 2 Best Multiplayer of the Year - Battlefield 3 Best Graphics of the Year - Crysis 2 Best Original Score of the Year - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim New Franchise of the Year - Bulletstorm Arcade Game of the Year - Bastion Innovative Gameplay Feature of the Year - Bulletstorm’s Killshot System Surprise of the Year - Rayman: Origins Disappointment of the Year - Duke Nukem Forever Developer of the Year - Rocksteady, Eidos or Epic Publisher of the Year - Bethesda Game of the Year - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Best Story: L.A. Noire by a LONG shot, since its the best story of ALL TIME

Best Multiplayer: None of them, battlefield 3 was worse then bad company 2, cod is not top 10 best multiplayer, fifa 12 is just like all other soccer game multiplayers, dirt 3 is like all other racing game multiplayers, and gears of war 3 was a huge let down in multiplayer compared to GOW 2.

Best Graphics: Forza 4, the rest are average graphics, why was LA Noire not on this list? it had bloody AMAZING graphics, not just in the face.

Best Original Score: LA Noire, its the only one on that list that was original.

Best new Franchise: LA Noire, brink/bulletstorm/rage were crap, dead island was a huge let down.

Arcade game of the year: Bastion, only one ive played on the list

Innovative feature: LA Noire, a great graphics improvement with the facial movements and if generaton 8 of gaming doesent ONLY use this then the game companies are BULLSHIT.

Surpise of the year: cant say, having even seen gameplay of any of them

Disapointment of the year: Duke Nukem Forever, realeasing a game with 12 years of hype that wouldn't be worth it if it had no hype.

Publisher of the year: Bethesda, THQ still makes games! microsoft dident make anything mentionable this year, EA only realeased Call of Battlefield, when they should of made a battlefield game not a COD clone. Ubisoft just relaeased assassins creed revelations, which has the same problem as all assassins creeds and they still havent acnoledged it, the games are too BLOODY EASY.

Game of the Year: SKYRIM The rest of the games were just big games, and portal 2 only got that high because the british comedian Stephen Merchant playing Wheastly. Since the puzzles were so easy, u NEVER required trial and error at any point and the campaign was 6 hours long, havent done coop yet tho.